RUSSIA REQUESTS MONEY: WILL BELARUS CUT OFF TRANSIT THROUGH LITHUANIAN PORTS?

Bulgaria’s public prosecutor’s office admitted having collected enough data to accuse Russian diplomats of espionage. Both were asked to leave the country. Both President Rumen Radev and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov approved the foreign office’s decision. The investigation was initiated at the request lodged by Bulgaria’s counterintelligence service (DANS). The State Agency for National Security said the two Russian nationals had supposedly collected data on plans to upgrade the Bulgarian army and maintain the technical readiness of military hardware. Alleged diplomats, who were in fact military intelligence officers, contacted Bulgarian nationals having access to data on the country’s arms industry. In some cases, a group of Bulgarians collected information, including official and state secrets, and handed it to the Russians in exchange for money. The two had been engaged in alleged spying activities in Bulgaria since 2016. When the investigation found these were Russian diplomats, it was brought to a halt while the prosecutor’s office passed relevant data to the foreign ministry. Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev informed the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zakhareva. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian foreign ministry took steps to expel diplomats whose activities deemed incompatible with their status. The Russian Embassy deplored the move and castigated the expulsion as baseless, with the decision made on “bogus” data. Russia’s foreign office vowed to advance titfor-tat measures, thus it will expel two Bulgaria diplomats who had a comparable rank to the two Russians. This is another spying scandal between Sofia and Moscow. In January 2020, two Russian diplomats were ordered to leave for similar reasons. Earlier Bulgaria had declined a visa to the incoming defense attaché at the Russian embassy in Sofia.

30 September 2020

RUSSIA REQUESTS MONEY: WILL BELARUS CUT OFF TRANSIT THROUGH LITHUANIAN PORTS?

Alexander Lukashenko has said he would block Baltic countries from shipping goods to Russia over Belarusian territory, and divert what is now sent through notably ports in Lithuania to the seaports in Russia. Belarus will have to pay much more, also according to what Russia is saying. If it is true, Lukashenko will start paying off his debt of gratitude to Russia amidst Moscow’s support during the Belarus political crisis.

SOURCE: KREMLIN.RU

Alexander Lukashenko said in early September that he would close borders with the Baltic nations and divert exports to the Russian ports in the Baltic Sea. Now it is Russia’s turn. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Belarus has a potential for supplying around 4-6 million tons of oil products per year via ports in Russia. Earlier in September he argued this would be between 3 and 4 million tons. The issue is now being discussed, with new arrangements coming soon, but Belarus is allowed to use capacities in the seaports of St. Petersburg, Ust-Luga, and Primorsk, Novak told in an interview for Rossiya 24 TV channel. In September Russia would draft proposals on the delivery of Belarusian oil products via the Russian ports. Novak also suggested beginning what he named as the “dialogue” on common energy markets in areas like crude oil, gas, and electricity. Being in energy cooperation with Russia is of strategic importance for Belarus. Minsk has always sought to receive cheap Russian hydrocarbons. Belarus long bought crude oil at Russian domestic prices to process it in its Novopolotsk and Mozyr refineries and sold oil products to the West via the Baltic seaports. As it seems, the price Belarus would have to pay for cheap hydrocarbons will be to redirect exports to the Russian exports in a move that reduces the country’s profitability of both crude processing and fuel exports.

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